Method and apparatus for engaging in a service or activity using an ad-hoc mesh network

ABSTRACT

An approach is provided for discovering a location-based service over an ad-hoc mesh network. A location-based service is discovered sending an anonymous flooding message including a query over the ad-hoc mesh network. A wireless node replies to the flooding message over the ad-hoc mesh network with a pointer to the discovered location-based service.

BACKGROUND

Wireless (e.g., cellular) service providers and device manufacturers arecontinually challenged to deliver value and convenience to consumers by,for example, providing compelling network services, applications, andcontent. One area of development is the use of device-to-devicecommunication networks and devices to automatically determineinformation and context about the local environment. However, technicalchallenges relating to power consumption, signaling overhead, security,and privacy have hindered such development.

SOME EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Therefore, there is a need for an approach for providing services oractivities that use information and associated context in a localenvironment.

According to one embodiment, a method comprises discovering alocation-based service by sending an anonymous flooding messageincluding a query over an ad-hoc mesh network. The method also comprisesreceiving a reply from a neighboring wireless node over the ad-hoc meshnetwork. The reply includes a pointer to the discovered location-basedservice.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus comprising at least oneprocessor, and at least one memory including computer program code, theat least one memory and the computer program code configured to, withthe at least one processor, cause the apparatus to discover alocation-based service by sending an anonymous flooding messageincluding a query over an ad-hoc mesh network. The apparatus is alsocaused to receive a reply from a neighboring wireless node over thead-hoc mesh network. The reply includes a pointer to the discoveredlocation-based service.

According to another embodiment, a computer-readable storage mediumcarrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, whenexecuted by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to discover alocation-based service by sending an anonymous flooding messageincluding a query over an ad-hoc mesh network. The apparatus is alsocaused to receive a reply from a neighboring wireless node over thead-hoc mesh network. The reply includes a pointer to the discoveredlocation-based service.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus comprises means fordiscovering a location-based service by sending an anonymous floodingmessage including a query over an ad-hoc mesh network. The apparatusalso comprises means for receiving a reply from a neighboring wirelessnode over the ad-hoc mesh network. The reply includes a pointer to thediscovered location-based service.

According to another embodiment, a method comprises receiving a floodingmessage including a query for discovering a location-based service overan ad-hoc mesh network. The method also comprises initiatingtransmission of a reply to the flooding message. The reply includes apointer to the discovered location-based service.

According to another embodiment, an apparatus comprising at least oneprocessor, and at least one memory including computer program code, theat least one memory and the computer program code configured to, withthe at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive a floodingmessage including a query for discovering a location-based service overan ad-hoc mesh network. The apparatus is also caused to initiatetransmission of a reply to the flooding message. The reply includes apointer to the discovered location-based service.

According to another embodiment, a computer-readable storage mediumcarrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, whenexecuted by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to receive aflooding message including a query for discovering a location-basedservice over an ad-hoc mesh network. The apparatus is also caused toinitiate transmission of a reply to the flooding message. The replyincludes a pointer to the discovered location-based service.

According to yet another embodiment, an apparatus comprises means forreceiving a flooding message including a query for discovering alocation-based service over an ad-hoc mesh network. The apparatus alsocomprises means for initiating transmission of a reply to the floodingmessage. The reply includes a pointer to the discovered location-basedservice.

Still other aspects, features, and advantages of the invention arereadily apparent from the following detailed description, simply byillustrating a number of particular embodiments and implementations,including the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention. Theinvention is also capable of other and different embodiments, and itsseveral details can be modified in various obvious respects, all withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, thedrawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature,and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example, andnot by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a communication system capable of engaging in aservice or activity using an ad-hoc mesh network, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2A is a diagram of the components of a wireless node including anawareness services module, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 2B-2E are diagrams of the components of an awareness servicesmodule, according to various exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 2F is a diagram of the data structure of a network layer messageheader, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2G is a diagram depicting a power saving scheme of adevice-to-device radio layer, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 3A-3D are flowcharts of processes for locating communities andcommunity members over an ad-hoc mesh network, according to variousexemplary embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for setting a state of a community tochange the visibility of community or community member, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5A is a ladder diagram that illustrates a sequence of messages andprocesses used in a querying node, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5B is a ladder diagram that illustrates a sequence of messages andprocesses used in a replying node, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 6A-6B are diagrams of a user interface utilized in the process oflocating communities over an ad-hoc mesh network, according to variousexemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 7A-7B are flowcharts of processes for discovering a location-basedservice using a flooding message, according to various exemplaryembodiments;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service forcollecting experiences, information, and content, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service for targetedadvertising, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service fordetermining location based on context information, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service fordetermining location based on sound, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a process for providing access for a serviceor activity, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a diagram of hardware that can be used to implement anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram of a chip set that can be used to implement anembodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 15 is a diagram of a mobile station (e.g., handset) that can beused to implement an embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A method and apparatus for engaging in a service or activity using anad-hoc mesh network are disclosed. In the following description, for thepurposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of theinvention. It is apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that theembodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specificdetails or with an equivalent arrangement. In other instances,well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form inorder to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the embodiments of the invention.

As used herein, the term “awareness information” refers to anyinformation and/or context about a local environment as well as theusers and communication devices within the local environment. By way ofexample, awareness information can be used to support applications forcreating social networks, determining presence, determining contextsassociated with a device, advertising, searching for information, etc.Although various exemplary embodiments are described with respect tolocating communities over an ad-hoc mesh network, it is contemplatedthat the approach described herein may be used within any type ofcommunication system or network.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a communication system capable of engaging in aservice or activity using an ad-hoc mesh network, according to anexemplary embodiment. Information and context comprise “awarenessinformation” that metaphorically equip a communication device with“radio eyes and ears” to continuously collect and exchange informationwith other devices in a local environment. However, development of asystem for providing awareness information poses significant technicalchallenges, particularly in the areas of creating a network for sharingawareness information, locating and organizing awareness information,forming communities for sharing awareness information, managing powerconsumption for devices constantly engaged in sharing awarenessinformation, developing applications to take advantage of the awarenessinformation, maintaining the privacy and anonymity of users sharingawareness information, and preventing the proliferation of undesiredmessages (e.g., spam) over the network.

As shown in FIG. 1, a system 100 comprises one or more wireless nodes101 a-101 n optionally having connectivity to a communication network103 through either operator A 105 or operator B 107. The wireless nodes101 a-101 n are any type of mobile terminal, portable terminal, or fixedterminal including mobile handsets, personal computers, stations, units,devices, multimedia tablets, Internet nodes, communicators, PersonalDigital Assistants (PDAs), radio readable tags (e.g., near fieldcommunication (NFC) tags, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags),or any combination thereof. It is also contemplated that the wirelessnodes 101 a-101 n can support any type of interface to the user (such as“wearable” circuitry, etc.).

In exemplary embodiments, the wireless nodes 101 a-101 n form an ad-hocmesh network 109 for sharing awareness information. The ad-hoc meshnetwork 109 is, for instance, a connectionless and serverlessdevice-to-device network (e.g., a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET)) createdusing short-range radio technology (e.g., wireless local area network(WLAN) or Bluetooth®). Within the ad-hoc mesh network 109, each wirelessnode 101 may be mobile and is within communication range of any numberof other wireless nodes 101. Accordingly, the set of wireless nodes 101a-101 n that is within communication range of any a particular wirelessnode 101 is transient and can change as the wireless nodes 101 a-101 nmove from location to location.

As discussed previously, service providers and device manufacturers thatare developing communication systems and networks for providingawareness information face many technical challenges. For example,current ad-hoc radios (e.g., WLAN and Bluetooth®) are designed forconnectivity (e.g., connectivity via Internet protocol (IP)). However,in an “always on” environment such as the ad-hoc mesh network 109, it isnot practical to have a large number of wireless nodes 101 a-101 n(e.g., mobile handset devices) “connected” by, for instance, IP to eachother for extended periods of time because of power usage andscalability problems. Specifically, a multi-hop connection in a largead-hoc network typically requires a significant amount of controlsignaling and power and can quickly deplete a mobile device's battery.Moreover, scalability can be a problem because current ad-hoc radios aretypically limited in the number of connections and the related signalingthat they can support at any given time. Another shortcoming of currentad-hoc radios is that they do not adequately protect a user's privacybecause they expose the user's identity through a fixed network address(e.g., a media access control (MAC) address) associated with the user'sdevice.

To address these problems, the system 100 creates the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109 for sharing awareness information in a connectionlessfashion. As used herein, the term “connectionless” refers to the abilityof a node (e.g. wireless node 101 a) to send and of all surroundingnodes 101 a-101 n to receive awareness information without the need tosend any prior control signaling. For example, sending awarenessinformation using the transmission control protocol/IP (TCP/IP) over aWLAN ad-hoc is not connectionless because of the two-way TCP controlsignaling between the sending and receiving nodes used to establish theTCP connection. The awareness information is provided, for instance, insmall anonymous messages that are exchanged by the wireless nodes 101a-101 n automatically without user intervention. As used herein, theterm “anonymous” means that it is not possible to infer the trueidentity of the sender from the message, unless the true identity isintentionally included in the message (e.g., by the user or anotherentity authorized by the user). The exchange of awareness informationoccurs as a broadcast message (i.e., a flooding message) from a wirelessnode 101 to neighboring wireless nodes 101 that are within range of theradio of the broadcasting wireless node 101. As neighboring wirelessnodes 101 receive the broadcasted message, each receiving wireless node101 may in turn rebroadcast the message to other neighboring wirelessnodes 101. In this way, the originally broadcasted message propagatesthroughout the ad-hoc mesh network 109. In exemplary embodiments, theextent of the propagation may be limited by criteria such as distance,location, time, etc.

Unlike traditional systems, such messages are only for carryingawareness information and are not for transporting content (e.g., filesor media containing voice, video, etc.) between two wireless nodes(e.g., wireless nodes 101 a and 101 b). Instead, the messages containonly pointers to the content or a small amount of data (e.g. presence orcontext information) to minimize the data traffic transported over thead-hoc mesh network 109. The wireless nodes 101 a-101 n may then accessthe content using other communication channels (e.g., via IP through thecommunication network 103). In addition, the system 100 eliminates theproblems associated with traditional methods for route establishment andmaintenance (e.g., connection based communication protocols), such asmaintaining and handing off connections as mobile devices move, andrequiring high levels of network resources for maintaining connectionsin an environment with a high number or density of mobile devices. Forexample, the event of a wireless node 101 appearing/disappearing to/fromthe network does not generate any control signaling in the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109. Similarly, the system 100 creates routing information onlywhen needed to route replies to queries back to the querying node. Therouting information is generated by using the query messages alone (i.e.no control signaling is used for creating routing information). Afterthe query and subsequent reply process is completed, the routes areforgotten. In other words, the query/reply process of system 100provisions routes for a reply to provide awareness information on demandrather than pushing awareness information from one node 101 to another.In exemplary embodiments, both push (e.g., information is published overthe ad-hoc mesh network 109) and pull (e.g., information is queried fromother nodes 101 a-101 n of the ad-hoc mesh network 109) modes ofdisseminating awareness information are possible. In certainembodiments, it is contemplated that the pull mode of operation can beused instead of the push mode to help suppress potential spam messages.

Moreover, the system 100 optimizes the power consumption of wirelessnodes 101 communicating over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 to enablealways-on operation without seriously affecting the battery life of thewireless nodes 101. For instance, by utilizing only short awarenessmessages, by eliminating the need for any route maintenance signaling,by employing procedures to minimize transmission and reception ofduplicative messages and by enabling an efficient sleep scheme for theshort-range device-to-device radio used within each wireless node 101(allowed by the low latency requirements typical of an awarenessinformation network), the system 100 can potentially provide hundreds ofhours (e.g., over 400 hours) of continuous operation of each wirelessnode 101 between battery charges in a mobile device. The system 100could be seen as a “nervous system” between the mobile devices, wheresmall messages (“nerve impulses”) are continuously exchanged by themobile devices (“neurons”) in order to bring awareness to the user of amobile device about the user's surroundings.

The system 100 also enables the development of new services andapplications based on awareness information (e.g., social networkingapplications, location-based applications, application for determiningpresence, applications for determining context, advertisingapplications). In particular, the continuous and immediate nature of theawareness information with respect to local environment enablescompelling new services. For instance, awareness information may becombined with the increasingly available storage and computing power inmobile devices (e.g., wireless nodes 101 a-101 n) to create a localsemantic web, whereby local awareness information is created andsearched for automatically by wireless nodes 101 within the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109. As used herein, the term “semantic web” refers to a systemin which the information and messages shared with the system isunderstandable by the nodes 101 within the system. It is noted thatestablishing such a local semantic web using the system 100 overcomestwo major problems blocking the development of a global semantic web:(1) lack of mechanism for providing semantic content on a large scale,and (2) lack of semantically aware search engines to help users findinformation in a semantic web. The system 100 can also be used forcollaborative context calculation, publishing pointers to information orcontent, search for friends within a defined community, finding out whatis going on and what kind of people are around a user, making theenvironment aware of the user, and other like applications.

The following are exemplary use-case scenarios for applications based onawareness information.

In a first use-case, the awareness information alerts a user to nearbypeople or places. For example, a user is visiting a new town when thewireless node 101 a alerts the user that “Salvatore, a friend of yourfriend David is nearby.” The user may then arrange to meet Salvatore toget a recommendation for sites to visit in the new town. In anotherexample, a user is looking for a good restaurant in an unfamiliarneighborhood. An application based on awareness information may presenta list of local restaurants ranked by the number of people currentlyeating in the restaurant that have the same food preferences as theuser. Such a list can be collected based on queries and replies thatcontain anonymous information of people's food preferences.

In a second use-case, an application uses the awareness information todiscover events near the user. For example, as a user passes a park, thewireless node 101 a informs the user, based on messages exchangedbetween nearby devices, that “There is a Japanese culture festival inthe Tea Garden Park; five members of your Kabuki community are there:Zen, Mi, Xia, Talo, and Chris.” The user may then decide to attend thefestival.

In a third use-case, an application provides location-based orcontext-based services using awareness information. For example, awireless node 101 a does not have positioning capabilities butnonetheless knows that it is in a grocery store based on anonymousawareness information from other nearby wireless nodes 101. It iscontemplated that the grocery store may also place a node 101 in thestore to provide such context information, possibly combined with otherstore specific information such as the address of the store's web page.The wireless node 101 a then reminds the user to “Remember to buydishwasher detergent” based on the user's location in a grocery store.The awareness information can also be the physical position informationfrom a neighboring wireless node 101 that has the positioningcapability. Sharing of positioning information with a neighboring nodewith such a capability can enable nodes 101 without such capability tooffer navigational services.

In another example, a group of people are attending a meeting. Themeeting invitation includes an identification code for that particularmeeting that is stored in the mobile nodes 101 of the meeting attendees(e.g., the identification code may be stored in the calendar data).Using the principles set forth in this invention, the nodes 101 canexchange the meeting identification code over the ad-hoc mesh network109 while attending the meeting. Comparing the exchanged identificationcode in a user's wireless device 101 can, for instance, establishwhether the users was indeed at the meeting corresponding to theidentification code. Such accurate social context knowledge can be used,for instance, to adapt the service or application behavior towards theuser.

In a fourth use-case, an application provides for search of localinformation that changes rapidly and very specific to a localenvironment. The local information often does not reach traditionalInternet search engines. For example, a user bought tickets to aconcert, but discovers at the last minute that the user cannot attend.The user stores a string “Ticket to concert X at venue Y is available”into the awareness services module 111 of the user's wireless node 101.As a result, a nearby wireless node 101 a, within a few street blocksaway, that searches for tickets by sending query messages with a string“Ticket concert X” over the multi-hop ad-hoc mesh network 109, willreceive the user's ticket availability message as an automatic reply.

In a fifth use-case, an application enables locally targetedadvertising. For example, it is almost closing time for a local freshfruit market. The merchants decide to publish an advertisement over thead-hoc mesh network 109 that “Apples are 50% off for the rest of theday.” The advertisement is available to users who live nearby themarket. In another example, a user browses an advertisement for a newprinter on a wireless node 101 a. In the browsing activity, a codeattached to the advertisement is stored in the awareness services module111. Upon searching and finding such a code, a nearby electronics storesends the user an offer to sell the printer with a 10% discount.

In a sixth use-case, an application automatically creates an activitylog based on the awareness information associated with a user. Forexample, the application records the people the user meets along withother awareness information such as when, where, context, etc. The userthen meets a person while walking on the street. The person looksfamiliar but the user does not recall the person's name or how the userknows the person. The wireless node 101 a running the applicationreports that the person's name is David and that the user met him at asoccer match one year ago in London.

In a seventh use-case, an application provides the capability toinitiate local discussion threads and group chats over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109. For example, the supporters of a football team form acommunity over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 wherein community members cansend short text messages (e.g., of small enough size to be sent directlyover the ad-hoc mesh network 109) that can be received and read only bythe fan club community members of that particular team.

FIG. 2A is a diagram of the components of a wireless node including anawareness services module, according to an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 2Ais described with respect to FIGS. 2B-2E which are diagrams of thecomponents of an awareness services module, according to variousexemplary embodiments. As shown in FIG. 2A, a wireless node 101 includesone or more components for sharing awareness information within thead-hoc mesh network 109. It is contemplated that the functions of thesecomponents may be combined in one or more components or performed byother components of equivalent functionality. In this embodiment, thewireless node 101 includes an application 201 that uses awarenessinformation to provide various services and functions including socialnetworking, location-based services, presence information, contextdetermination, advertising functions, etc. The application 201 mayinteract with the awareness services module 111 to obtain or shareawareness information.

By way of example, the awareness services module 111 includes threelayers: a cognition layer 203, a community layer 205, and a networklayer 207. The cognition layer 203 is the highest control layer forsharing awareness information. As shown in FIG. 2B, the cognition layer203 includes a control logic 221 and item storage 223. The control logic221, for instance, provides the logic for creating, publishing,querying, and receiving awareness information over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109. The control logic 221 can store the information that iteither creates or receives in the item storage 223. It is contemplatedthat the item storage 223 may be of sufficient size to store all or aportion of the information that flows through the wireless node 101 overa configurable period of time (e.g., days, months, or years).

In exemplary embodiments, the control logic 221 enables querying anddissemination of awareness information by initiating the flooding of thequery or information to neighboring wireless nodes 101 within the ad-hocmesh network 109. For example, upon receiving a query, the wirelessnodes 101 in the local neighborhood that have the queried informationreply to the querying node automatically. In exemplary embodiments, thereply information is also automatically stored in the item storage 223of each wireless node 101 through which the propagating reply passes.Moreover, the reply to a query may result in return of a pointer tospecific content relevant to the query rather than the content itselfunder certain circumstances (e.g., when the specific content is large insize). It is contemplated that the reply may contain direct content ifthe content is relatively small (e.g., a few tens of bytes ofinformation). By using a pointer, the system 100 minimizes the datatraffic that flows through the ad-hoc mesh network 109. The user maythen access the content via the pointer (e.g., a universal resourcelocator (URL) address, IP address) via a more appropriate communicationprotocol (e.g., IP) and/or means of communication (e.g. infrastructurenetworks). The receipt of the pointer (e.g., IP address) mayautomatically trigger the transfer of the content using, for instance,the communication protocol associated with the pointer. In the case ofbroadcasting or publishing information, any wireless node 101 throughwhich the published information propagates may store the information initem storage 223 of the wireless node 101.

In other exemplary embodiments, awareness information can also bepublished directly by flooding an awareness message. Such a push modefor the dissemination of awareness information can be used to supportsome applications (e.g. advertising or group chatting) over the ad-hocmesh network 109.

It is recognized that privacy and anonymity may be of concern to usersof the system 100. Accordingly, the control logic 221 providesmechanisms for ensuring privacy and anonymity. For example, the controllogic 221 can prevent the transmission of intimate information when thenumber of neighboring wireless nodes is small to prevent the possibilityof inferring identity. As used herein, the term “intimate information”refers to information directly related to the user, e.g., the user'shabits, tastes, or preferences (musical preferences, favoriterestaurants, etc.).

The control logic 221 may also periodically broadcast decoy queries andreplies to make tracking an individual wireless node 101 more difficult.Since an outside observer does not know the authentication keyassociated with a community, the observer cannot distinguish a validmessage from a fictitious one. Accordingly, by observing decoy messages,the observer is likely to detect presence of a private community whenthere is not one. Additionally, the control logic 221 enables to user todefine filters for incoming information (e.g., filter advertisements)and how these filters would work (e.g., ignore the informationcompletely, relay the information but do not store, etc.). It is alsocontemplated that the user can direct the control logic 221 to controlthe user's visibility on the ad-hoc mesh network 109 (e.g., novisibility, visible only to a certain community or other user) tomaintain privacy. As another mechanism for protecting privacy, thecontrol logic 221 can interact with the community layer 205 to anonymizea specific message and corresponding identifiers as described below withrespect to the community layer 205.

Because one of the goals of the system 100 is to provide a mechanism foranonymous spreading of awareness information, it is recognized thatundesired or unsolicited messages (e.g., spam messages) may become aproblem. To address this problem, the control logic 221 may obtain, forinstance, information from the lower system layers of the awarenessservices module 111 about the traffic load and current average powerconsumption. If the traffic load is medium or high (meaning that alsopower consumption related to system 100 is medium or high) restrictionsmay be set for the frequency at which flooding messages are sent by thecontrol logic 221. It is also contemplated, that the neighboring peernodes 101 can be configured to not forward any flooding messagesoriginating from a node 101 neglecting such message restrictions.

The cognition layer 203, together with the community layer 205, providean application programming interface (API) 225 to enable an application201 to access the functions of the control logic 221 and the itemstorage 223. In exemplary embodiments, the API 225 enables applicationdevelopers to have uniform and easy access to functions related tosharing awareness information over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. It iscontemplated that the API 225 is extensible to accommodate anyapplication designed to access or use awareness information. Theapplications in the various nodes 101 do not have to be the same ormutually compatible. It is sufficient that the applications use the APIcorrectly to be able to publish and search awareness information in thesurrounding nodes 101.

The cognition layer 203 also has connectivity to the community layer205. The community layer 205 controls the formation and cataloging ofcommunities of wireless nodes 101 within the ad-hoc mesh network 109. Byway of example, a user may create any number of communities for sharingawareness information. It is contemplated that a community may be eithera peer community (e.g., any wireless node 101 may join), a personalcommunity (e.g., a wireless node 101 may join only if invited), or theopen local community that consists of all nodes in the localneighborhood. In exemplary embodiments, the messages that traversebetween the wireless nodes 101 within the ad-hoc mesh network 109 belongto one of these three community types. Communities can either be private(messages are encrypted) or public (no encryption used). In exemplaryembodiments, membership and status in a community affect how thewireless node 101 shares awareness information (see the discussion withrespect to FIG. 2G for additional details of community membership).

Furthermore, a community may be created for any purpose or duration(e.g., a permanent work community, a permanent community of friends, atemporary community of concert goers lasting only the duration of theconcert). As shown in FIG. 2C, the community layer 205 includes acommunity control module 241, a community directory 243, and anencryption/decryption module 245. The community control module 241provides the logic for creating, joining, managing (e.g., updatingmembership, configuring settings and preferences, setting privacypolicies), and deleting communities. The module 241 also provides partof the API 225.

In exemplary embodiments, the community control module 241 assigns aunique community identification number (CID) to each community for usewithin the ad-hoc mesh network 109. The control module 241 can alsogenerate authentication keys K associated with the CID to, for instance,authenticate users who wish to join the community or authenticatemessages directed to the community. For example, a wireless node 101 mayinvite another wireless node 101 to join a community by transferring theCID and authentication keys associated with the community to the otherwireless node 101. It is contemplated that the transfer of the CID andcorresponding authentication key may occur using short range radio orusing another secure mechanism (e.g., short message service (SMS) orelectronic mail). It is noted that both peer and personal communitiesuse a CID and corresponding K, whereas the open local community eithercan use a predetermined value for CID (e.g., zero) or does not use theCID at all.

To ensure privacy (as discussed above), the community control module 241interacts an encryption/decryption module 245 to anonymize the CID whenincluding the CID in messages over the ad hoc mesh network 109. Forexample, a wireless node 101 may direct a query to a specific communityusing an anonymized CID (e.g., a pseudonym) associated with thecommunity in lieu of the actual CID. In exemplary embodiments, multipleanonymized CIDs may be used to represent a single community. In thisway, it is more difficult to identify queries corresponding to aparticular community by monitoring traffic within the ad hoc meshnetwork 109. From the perspective of an outside observer, the anonymizedCIDs look random. In addition, the encryption/decryption module 245 mayencrypt or decrypt message data using, for instance, a temporary keythat is periodically derived from the authentication key K associatedwith the CID. These measures hinder the discovery of the CID byoutsiders that do not have the authentication key. By way of example,the community layer 205 inserts a special header into the messages thatit receives from the cognition layer 203. The special header, forinstance, contains a list of anonymized community identifierscorresponding to the communities to which the message is relevant.

FIG. 2D is a state diagram of the effect of community membership andstatus on sharing awareness information, according to an exemplaryembodiment. As shown in FIG. 2D, a wireless node 101 may be in eitherone or two states (e.g., a not-joined state 251 and a joined state 253)with respect to membership in a community within the ad-hoc mesh network109. The application 201 of wireless node 101 issues, for instance, acommand 255 to either join or leave a community to transition betweenthe not-joined state 251 and the joined state 253. When the wirelessnode 101 is in the not-joined state 251 with respect to a community, thewireless node 101 has no information (e.g., CID and associatedauthentication keys K) about the community and cannot access messagesdirected to the community. When the wireless node 101 is in the joinedstate 253, the community layer 205 receives the CID and possibly one ormore authentication keys associated with the community. In oneembodiment, authentication keys are provided when membership in thecommunity is by invitation or otherwise restricted (e.g., when thecommunity is a personal community or a private community). Accordingly,the community layer 205 will be able to encrypt outgoing communityspecific messages and to decrypt incoming community specific messages.

When the wireless node 101 is in the joined state 253, the wireless node101 may also be in either an inactive state 257 or an active state 259.To transition between the inactive state 257 and the active state 259,the application 201 may issue a command 261 to either activate ordeactivate the joined state 253 via the application programminginterface 225. When the wireless node 101 is in the inactive state 257,the community layer 205 abandons the message even though it is a memberof the community. In certain embodiments, the wireless node 101 may alsobe invisible to other members of the community while in the inactivestate 257. For example, the wireless node 101 may enter the inactivestate 257 when it temporarily does not want to receive or shareinformation with the community. When the wireless node 101 is in theactive state 259, the community layer 205 encrypts and decryptscommunity messages as usual for private communities, and enables alloutgoing and incoming community specific messages for public communities(e.g., communities with no restrictions on membership).

Within the active state 259, the wireless node 101 may also be in eitheran invisible state 263 or a visible state 265. To transition between theinvisible state 263 and the visible state 265, the application 201issues a command 267 to set either the visible or invisible state. Whenin the invisible state 263, the community-specific identity (e.g., auser alias) associated with the wireless node 101 cannot be queried byother members of the community. For example, in the invisible state 263,the community layer 205 continues to receive and send community messageswithout its identity known to other community members. When in thevisible state 265, the identity of the wireless node 101 can be queriedby other members of the community.

In various embodiments, the community directory 243 of the communitylayer 205 maintains, for instance, information on the communities thatthe user has joined. Such information contains, at least, the communityidentification (CID). Additionally, it may contain public and/or privateauthentication keys (K) of the joined communities and a list ofanonymized community identifiers for each community. The communitycontrol module 241 may periodically recalculate the list of anonymizedCIDs. By way of example, the community layer 205 inserts a header intothe message it receives from the cognition layer 203. The headercontains, for instance, a list of anonymized community identifiersidentifying the communities to which the message is relevant.

It is contemplated that a special personal community can be reserved fortracking new bonds or relationships created between users. Consider, forexample, that user A meets user B for the first time and wants to createa radio bond between the mobile devices corresponding to each user. Inone embodiment, user A can initiate the creation this bond with user Bby transferring to user B (e.g., by using a secure transfer mechanism)the CID and the public K of user A's personal “new bonds” community.Similarly, user B may give user A similar credentials corresponding touser B's “new bonds” community. Once the credentials are exchanged andthe bond has been created, user A may find user B over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109 by searching for members of user A's “new bonds” community.In other words, with a simple search of a single community, user A cansearch for all the people in user A's local neighborhood with whom userA has created a bond. This requires that a high number of community CIDsand Ks can be stored in the community directory 243. Also, an effectivelookup of the community directory must be provided. There are manyexisting and good solutions for such efficient lookup.

As the user creates new bonds, the number community CIDs and Ks storedin the user's community directory 243 can grow quite large. Accordingly,to enable effective search of a large number of communities, thecommunity layer 205 may generate a special community search message toinitiate the search. For example, the special community search messagecontains, at least in part, a list of anonymized community identifierscorresponding to the communities to be searched. To protect the privacy,the community layer 205 can generate a new set of anonymized communityidentifiers for each community search message. If the community layer205 finds a match to any of the anonymized community identifiers in anyof the neighboring nodes 101 that receives the search message, thecommunity layer 205 generates a reply message that may contain the aliasof the user in that community or other community specific information.The reply message may be encrypted with the encryption key of thecommunity.

As shown in FIG. 2C, the community layer 205 has connectivity to thecognition layer 203 above and the network layer 207 below. The networklayer 207 manages the rebroadcasting of received flooding messages andthe routing of the unicast (typically reply) messages received by thewireless node 101. FIG. 2E depicts a diagram of the components of thenetwork layer 207, according to an exemplary embodiment. The networklayer 207 includes a network control module 271, routing table 273,neighbor table 275, message identification (MID) table 277, and messagetable 279. The network control module 271 directs the broadcasts ofmessages and information by managing and updating the routing table 273,neighbor table 275, MID table 277, and message table 279. In certainembodiments, the network control module 271 may also assist inprotecting the privacy and anonymity of users by periodically changingthe network layer identification associated with the wireless node 101.It is noted that making such a change in the network layeridentification between queries does not cause routing problems forreplies because the routing information is recreated by each query inthe ad-hoc mesh network 109.

In exemplary embodiments, the network layer 207 may insert a header intomessages it receives from the community layer 205 to, for instance,direct flooding and routing of the received messages. The structure ofthis network layer message header 281 is discussed with respect to FIG.2F. FIG. 2F is a diagram of the data structure of a network layermessage header, according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown, themessage header 281 contains the following fields: (1) a TX field 282 toidentify the transmitter node ID (NID) of the last transmitting node101; (2) a SRC field 283 to identify the source node ID of the node 101that originated the message; (3) a DST field 284 to identify thedestination source ID of the intended recipient of a unicast (reply)message (e.g., this field is give a value of zero when the message is aflooding messages); (4) a MSN field 285 to identify the message sequencenumber assigned by the source node; and (5) a hop count field 286 thatis incremented by one by each node 101 that transmits the message. Incertain embodiments, the message header 281 may also contain thefollowing optional fields: (6) a geographical limit field 287 todesignate the extent of the physical over which the message is intendedto propagate (e.g., the geographical limit field 287 may contain ageographical position of the source node and a maximum flooding radiusfrom that position); (7) a temporal limit field 288 (e.g., the temporallimit field 288 may contain the time when the message becomes obsoleteand should be dropped); and (8) a context limit field 289 that definesthe context beyond which the message is not intended to propagate (e.g.a message related to a particular concert is not intended to extendbeyond the concert venue).

Returning to FIG. 2E, the network layer 207 also contains a routingtable 273. In exemplary embodiments, the routing table 273 contains alisting of the node identification number (NID) of the originatingwireless node 101 (e.g., source NID) and the NIDs of the last knowntransmitters of the message. The purpose of the routing table is toenable the routing of the reply messages (e.g., unicast messages) backto the querying node that originated the query through a floodingmessage. As the message propagates through the ad-hoc mesh network 109,each subsequent wireless node 101 that receives the message adds the NIDof the last transmitter to the routing table to record the next hopneighbor towards the source node. The source node is marked as thedestination node (DST) in the routing table. Also the message sequencenumber of the message is recorded. The update of the routing table 273is coordinated by the network control module 271. As shown in Table 1,the routing table 273 lists the destination NID, the transmitter NIDsassociated with wireless nodes 101 that have rebroadcasted a message andthe MSN of the message.

TABLE 1 Destination NID Transmitter NIDs Message Sequence Number DST₁TX₁₁, TX₁₂, . . . , TX_(1M) MSN₁ DST₂ TX₂₁, TX₂₂, . . . , TX_(2N) MSN₂ .. . . . . DST_(S) TX_(S1), TX_(S), . . . , TX_(ST) MSN_(S)

The neighbor table 275 contains a list of the neighboring wireless nodes101 and an estimate of their relative radio distance (see Table 3). Itis contemplated that the observed signal strength together with theknown transmitting power of a neighboring wireless node 101 is anindicator of the proximity of the wireless node 101 and can be used tocalculate the relative radio distance. The relative radio distance ofthe node from which the message was last received is then used as acriterion for whether or not the wireless node 101 retransmits areceived message. For instance, a higher signal strength indicatescloser proximity to the wireless node 101. The network control module271 monitors the signal strengths of neighboring nodes 101 as the module271 receives messages from nearby devices and uses it to estimate therelative radio distance (e.g., proximity of the transmitting node 101).It is also contemplated that the network control module 271 may use anyother mechanism for estimating the relative radio distance ofneighboring nodes (e.g., estimating location using global positioningsatellite receivers or other positioning techniques).

In certain embodiments, the network control module 271 uses theproximity information to direct the routing and transmission of messagesover the ad-hoc mesh network 109. For example, the system 101 can reducethe potential for overloading the ad-hoc mesh network 109 byimplementing a smart flooding scheme whereby only a few nodes 101retransmit a flooding message. Whether a node 101 retransmits a floodingmessage can be dependent on the relative distance group (e.g., “verynear”, “near”, or “far”) to which the node 101 that is the transmitterof the message belongs. More specifically, if the transmitting node 101is in the “far” or “near” group, the receiving node 101 can retransmitthe flooding message. If the transmitting node 101 is in the “very near”group, the receiving node 101 does not retransmit the flooding message.For each broadcast message received from a node in either the “far” or“near” group, the network control module 271 assigns a random delay timefor relaying or rebroadcasting. The delay period, for instance, exhibitsa distribution function based on the estimated relative radio distanceas a way to randomize the delay period before transmission. Thedistribution should be chosen in such a way that the random delay islarger for those nodes that are “near” than for those that are “far.”This favors, for instance, nodes 101 that are further away to relay theflooding message forward, which results in better flooding efficiency(smaller total number of transmissions). The use of a random delay timealso prevents the unintended synchronization of message broadcasts asthe message propagates over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. For example,unintended synchronization of the message broadcasts may result in toomany nodes 101 sending broadcasting (i.e., flooding) messages over thead-hoc mesh network 109 at exactly the same time. Additionally, thedelay time provides an opportunity for the network control module 271 tomonitor and count rebroadcasts of the message by other neighboringwireless nodes 101.

TABLE 2 Transmitter NID Relative Radio Distance TX₁ D₁ TX₂ D₂ . . . . .. TX_(T) D_(T)

The MID table 277 contains a list of received messages. As the wirelessnode 101 receives messages from neighboring nodes over the ad hoc meshnetwork 109, the network control module 271 uses the MID table to checkwhether the message has been received previously by, for example,comparing the MIDs in the MID table 277 to that of the received message.The MID table 277 also contains a flag indicating whether a message hasbeen transmitted by the node 101 and the time when the entry was lastupdated. In exemplary embodiments, the MID is the tuple (SRC, MSN),where SRC is the NID of the source node and MSN is a message sequencenumber assigned by the source node. In this way, the MID is a uniqueidentifier of each message that propagates in the network 109. Thenetwork control module 271 makes an entry in the MID table 277 for allnew messages that it receives. If the message has been scheduled fortransmission, the module 271 increments the message counter in themessage table (see Table 4).

TABLE 3 MID Sent flag Time of reception (SRC₁, MSN₁₁) “SENT” t₁₁ (SRC₁,MSN₁₂) “NOT SENT” t₁₂ . . . . . . . . . (SRC₂, MSN₂₁) “NOT SENT” t₂₁

The message table 279 contains messages that the network control module271 has scheduled to transmit. For example, as the node 101 receives aflooding message that the network control module 271 schedules fortransmission, the module 271 updates the message table to include themessage in the message table 279. Each entry in the message table 279contains the message itself, the time when the message is scheduled tobe sent, and the number of receptions of the same message by the node101 (see Table 4). In exemplary embodiments, a message is not replayedover the ad-hoc mesh network 109 if the number of times the message hasbeen received exceeds a predefined limit. For example, a message has theinitial count of 0. In this example, as a wireless node 101 in theneighborhood is observed to transmit the message, the message countassociated with the message is increased. When the maximum message countis reached, the network control module 271 removes the message from themessage table 279. The transmitter of each message is also associatedwith an estimated relative radio distance (D) indicating whether thetransmitting node is within close proximity of the wireless node 101(e.g., transmitting node 101 is in the “very near” relative radiodistance group) or far from the wireless node 101 (e.g., transmittingnode 101 is in the “far” relative radio distance group). If the relativeradio distance associated with the transmitting node indicates that thetransmission of the message occurred “very near,” the wireless node 101would not have to relay the message because it is assumed, for instance,that most of the other neighboring wireless nodes 101 have alreadyreceived the same message. By taking into account the relative radiodistances of neighboring nodes, the described smart floodingfunctionality leads to, on average, each flooding message being receivedfor a few times by each node 101 independent of the node density. Thenumber of times a message is received by any one node 101 affects thescalability of the network 109.

If the received message, however, is a unicast reply message that wasaddressed to the receiving node 101, the network control module 271checks whether the destination node 101 can be found in the routingtable 273 (e.g., can be found from the destination field in the replymessage, or obtained from the source field of the query by the replyingnode). If found, the routing table entry will give the NID of theneighboring node to which the reply message will be sent in the nextopportunity. If the unicast transmission is not successful, the nextentry for the same DST will be used as the next try. If the receivedmessage is a unicast reply message that was not addressed to thereceiving node, and no acknowledgment from the intended receiver nodewas heard, the node will store the message in the message table 279 forscheduled retransmission. It is noted that unicast messages oracknowledgement messages that are not addressed to the node 101 arenormally received D2D radio layer 209 (see discussion of the D2D radiolayer 209 below) but not by the awareness services module 111. However,under certain circumstances, the D2D radio layer 209 can provide suchmessages to the awareness services module 111 to schedule forretransmission. For example, if no successful unicast of the samemessage is observed by the time when the message is scheduled to betransmitted, the node 101 will transmit the unicast or acknowledgementmessage to the intended recipient found from the routing table 273associated with the message. In this way, the nodes 101 that are not theintended recipients of the reply messages can assist in routing themessage forward towards the correct destination.

TABLE 4 Message Time to send Received msg count MSG₁ t₁ C₁ MSG₂ t₂ C₂ .. . . . . . . . MSG_(M) t_(M) C_(M)

As shown in FIG. 2A, the awareness services module 111 has connectivityto a device-to-device (D2D) radio layer 209. The D2D radio layer 209enables the formation of the ad-hoc mesh network 109 and sharing ofawareness information using, for instance, short range radiotechnologies such WLAN and Bluetooth®. It is contemplated that the D2Dradio layer 209 may use any wireless technology for communicationbetween devices over short ranges. The radio technology, for instance,enables each wireless node 101 within the ad-hoc mesh network 109 tobroadcast messages in a connectionless way to the neighboring nodes 101that are within radio range. As used herein, the term “connectionless”means the wireless nodes 101 need not use two-way signaling to establisha communication channel before broadcasting a message. In exemplaryembodiments, the D2D radio layer 209 may include multiple radios usingone or more different technologies or protocols (e.g., WLAN andBluetooth® simultaneously). A wireless node 101 configured with multipleradios may act as a gateway node to span two or more sub-networksserviced by the different wireless technologies. In this way, messagesbroadcast on one sub-network may be propagated to another sub-network.

FIG. 2G is a diagram depicting a power saving scheme of adevice-to-device radio layer, according to an exemplary embodiment. Thesmall amount of awareness data as well as the low latency requirementsof the system 100 enables the operation of the D2D radio layer 209 in away that leads to low power consumption. As shown in FIG. 2G, the D2Dradio layer 209 may have beaconing periods 291 a-291 c delineated bytarget beacon transmission times (TBTTs) 293 a-293 c. In exemplaryembodiments, the D2D radio layer 209 may operate in a time-synchronizedmanner and utilize only a fraction of the time for active communication(e.g., during awake periods 295 a-295 c). During the rest of eachbeaconing period 291, the D2D radio layer 209 is in, for instance, apower-saving or dozing mode (e.g., during doze periods 297 a-297 c). Forexample, each beaconing period 291 can be on the order of hundreds ofmilliseconds and each awake period 293 only a few milliseconds, leadingto effective radio utilization of approximately one percent. It iscontemplated that for situations, where the number of nodes 101 is verylarge (such as during mass events), time-wise radio utilization canincrease up to 100 percent momentarily (e.g., awake period 293 equalsactive transmission period 291). At times of low traffic (for example atnight), the radio utilization can be decreased to, for instance, 0.1percent, by utilizing every tenth awake period 293 while stillmaintaining synchronization.

In exemplary embodiments, the low latency requirements also enablesaving power in the host processor (e.g., as depicted in FIG. 9). Forillustration, the following description refers to the components ofexemplary chip set of FIG. 9. The D2D radio layer 209 is typicallyimplemented in the ASIC module 909, whereas the functionalities of theawareness services module 111 can be implemented either in the ASIC 909or the processor 903. If the functionalities of the awareness servicesmodule 111 are implemented in the processor 903, power consumption isreduced by, for instance, having ASIC 909 wake up the processor 903 asinfrequently as possible. By way of example, the periodic operation ofthe D2D radio layer 209 explained above enables the ASIC 909 to collectall messages and send them to the processor 903 at a frequency of onceper active transmission period 291. The processor 903 then processes allreceived messages and calculates new messages to be sent for the nextactive transmission period 291. The processor 903 then sends themessages to the ASIC 909 for transmission. Using this process, aflooding message can make one hop (e.g., travel from one node 101 toanother node 101) per period 291, which is fully acceptable forawareness information. In contrast, potential delays of hundreds ofmilliseconds are not possible, for example, for voice traffic, and thesekinds of power savings cannot therefore be achieved in othercommunication systems transporting delay-sensitive traffic.

FIGS. 3A-3D are flowcharts of processes for locating communities andcommunity members in the local neighborhood over an ad-hoc mesh network,according to various exemplary embodiments. FIG. 3A is a flowchart forlocating active communities over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 andupdating a list of the active communities that are visible to a wirelessnode 101. In one embodiment, the awareness services module 111 performsthe process 300 of FIG. 3A and is implemented in, for instance, a chipset including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 9. In step 301,the awareness services module 111 identifies one or more communities ofwireless nodes 101 by using, for instance, community identifiers (CIDs)corresponding to the one or more communities. In exemplary embodiments,each CID is associated with one or more authentication keys forauthenticating members and messages transmitted within the correspondingcommunity. The CIDs and associated keys are stored by the awarenessservices module 111 in, for instance, the community directory 243 andmay be provided to wireless nodes 101 that are members of the communityin advance using a secure communication channel over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109 or the communication network 103. CIDs and keys that arecreated subsequently may also be provided using a secure communicationchannel over either the ad-hoc mesh network 109 or the communicationnetwork 103.

By way of example, the awareness services module 111 can use the CIDs tolocate and identify communities that are active (e.g., transmitting orreceiving community messages) among one or more neighboring wirelessnodes 101 by (1) passively monitoring messages directed towards one ormore communities over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 using the processdescribed with respect to FIG. 3B below, (2) actively searching for oneor more communities using a community search message as described withrespect to FIG. 3C below, and/or (3) actively searching for one or moremembers of the communities using a member search message as describedwith respect to FIG. 3D. The awareness services module 111 then updatesa list of active communities based on the identification (step 303). Forexample, the list of active communities includes those communities towhich the wireless node 101 belongs (e.g., communities that are privatesuch as a community of personal friends) and those communities that arepublic and open to all nodes 101 (e.g., a general community of allwireless nodes on the ad-hoc network 109 in which system wide messagesmay be exchanged).

In exemplary embodiments, the awareness services module 111 iscontinuously updating the list of active communities by, for instance,monitoring for messaging traffic over the ad-hoc mesh network 109related to one or more of the active communities (step 305). Morespecifically, the awareness services module 111 tracks whether there areany messages originating from or directed to one or more of the activecommunities over a predetermined period of time. In one embodiment, theperiod of time can be dependent on the on the density or stability ofneighboring wireless nodes 101. For example, if the composition of theneighboring wireless nodes 101 is changing rapidly, the time period canbe shorter. Similarly, if the composition of the neighboring wirelessnodes 101 is more stable, the time period can be longer. In either case,the awareness services module 111 observes whether there are anymessages related to one or more of the active communities (e.g., bychecking the header information of the messages for CIDs correspondingto any of the active communities) (step 307). If no messages areobserved over the predetermined period of time for a particularcommunity, the awareness services module 111 designates that communityas inactive and updates the list of active communities accordingly (step309). If a message related to a particular community is observed duringthe time period, the community is considered to be still active and theawareness services module 111 need not update the list of activecommunities. It is contemplated that the awareness services module cancontinuously or periodically perform the monitoring process to updatethe list of active communities.

FIG. 3B is a flowchart of a process for passively identifying an activecommunity by monitoring community messages, according to one embodiment.In one embodiment, the awareness services module 111 performs theprocess 320 of FIG. 3B and is implemented in, for instance, a chip setincluding a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 9. In step 321, theawareness services module 111 receives a message directed to one or morecommunities from a neighboring wireless node 101 over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109. The awareness services module 111 then determines whetherthe receiving wireless node 101 is a member of the community to whichthe message is directed (step 323). For example, the determination mayinvolve checking whether the CID contained in, for instance, the messageheader of the received message matches a CID contained in the communitydirectory 243 of the receiving wireless node 101. In certainembodiments, the CID is anonymized to protect the privacy of thecommunity and its members. In this case, the receiving wireless node 101is a member of the community, the awareness services module 111 maydecode the anonymized CID using the authentication key associated withthe CID of the community specified in the received message. Further, ifthe message is encrypted, the awareness services module 111 may open theencryption using the encryption key associated with the CID as listed inthe community directory 243. If the awareness services module 111determines that the receiving node 111 is a member of the community(step 325), the module 111 identifies the community as an activecommunity and updates the list of active communities accordingly (step327).

FIG. 3C is a flowchart of a process for actively searching for one ormore active communities using a community search message, according toan exemplary embodiment. In one embodiment, the awareness servicesmodule 111 performs the process 340 of FIG. 3C and is implemented in,for instance, a chip set including a processor and a memory as shown inFIG. 9. In step 341, the awareness services module 111 receives inputrequesting a search for one or more active communities in the localneighborhood of the ad-hoc mesh network 109. The input is received from,for instance, the application 201 through the application programminginterface 225 (as described with respect to FIGS. 2A and 2C). Forexample, the input may specify one or more communities for which tosearch. In response, the awareness services module 111 retrieves a CIDfor each requested community (step 343). In certain embodiments, theCIDs are anonymized to protect the privacy of the community and itsmembers (step 345). Using anonymized CIDs protects privacy by making itmore difficult for an outsider to track communications related to anyparticular community. The community control module 241 then generates acommunity search message containing a containing a unique communityquery identifier CQID and a list of anonymized CIDs (step 347).

After creating the message, the awareness services module 111 initiatesbroadcast of the message over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 (step 349). Inexemplary embodiments, the community search message is equivalent to aquery and is transmitted and replied to using the processes describedwith respect to FIGS. 5A and 5B below. As the message propagates overthe ad-hoc mesh network 109, mobile devices that are members of one ormore of the active communities associated with the anonymized CID orCIDs included in the message automatically respond to mobile device thatoriginally sent the message. The awareness services module 111 initiatesreceipt of the reply messages (step 351). The reply message contains,for instance, a list of anonymized CIDs of those searched communitieswhich have an “active” status in the replying node 101. Based on thislist, the awareness services module 111 identifies each community in thelist as an active community and updates the list of active communitiesin, for instance, the community directory 243 (step 353).

FIG. 3D is a flowchart of a process for actively determining thepresence and community-specific identity (e.g., alias) of members of aparticular community or communities, according to an exemplaryembodiment. In one embodiment, the awareness services module 111performs the process 360 of FIG. 3D and is implemented in, for instance,a chip set including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 9. Instep 361, the awareness services module 111 receives input requesting asearch for one or more members of a community. The input is receivedfrom, for instance, the application 201 through the applicationprogramming interface 225 (as described with respect to FIGS. 2A and2C). For example, the input may specify one or more communities whosemembers are to be searched for. In step 363, the awareness servicesmodule 111 retrieves the CID or CIDs associated with the requestedcommunity or communities from the community directory 243. In certainembodiments, the CIDs are anonymized to protect the privacy of thecommunity and its members (step 365). If any one of the communities isset in the “visible” state, the awareness services module 111 alsoretrieves the community-specific user identity (e.g., an alias) of theuser for that community. By way of example, the encryption/decryptionmodule 245 of the awareness services module 111 may also encrypt theuser alias in step 365 using, for instance, one or more of the keysassociated with each community in the community directory 243. Thecommunity control module 241 then generates a member search messagecontaining a unique community query identifier CQID, a list ofanonymized CIDs, and corresponding plaintext (in case of a publiccommunity) or encrypted (in case of a private community) aliases of themembers for which to search (step 367).

After the member search message is generated, the awareness servicesmodule 111 initiates broadcast of the member search message over thead-hoc mesh network 109 (step 369). In exemplary embodiments, the membersearch message is equivalent to a query and is transmitted and repliedto using the processes described with respect to FIGS. 5A and 5B below.As the message propagates over the ad-hoc mesh network 109, mobiledevices that have one or more communities associated with the anonymizedCID or CIDs in the “visible” state automatically respond to the mobiledevice that originally sent the message. If aliases corresponding to oneor more users are also included in member search message, mobile devicescorresponding to the user aliases also respond. The awareness servicesmodule 111 initiates receipt of the reply messages sent in response tothe member search message (step 371). The reply message includes, forinstance, a list of anonymized CIDs, plaintext or encrypted user aliasesand, possibly, the plaintext or encrypted status (e.g. activity state,mode, etc.) of the community member. In certain embodiments, theawareness services module 111 uses the reply messages to update the listof visible community members in the local neighborhood (step 373). Inaddition, the awareness services module 111 also uses the replies toidentify active communities within the neighborhood and to update thelist of active communities (step 375). The updates are based, forinstance, on the anonymized CIDs, the community-specific member identity(e.g., alias), o other member-specific information included in the replymessages.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for setting a state of a community tochange the visibility of community or community member, according to anexemplary embodiment. In one embodiment, the awareness services module111 performs the process 400 and is implemented in, for instance, a chipset including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 9. In step 401,the awareness services module 111 enables the user to set a statecorresponding to a community that determines the visibility of thecommunity or a member of the community. The different states of thecommunity and how the state affects the visibility of status of thecommunity are discussed with respect to FIG. 2D. For example, in variousembodiments, when a community is active, it is capable of sending andreceiving community specific messages. Similarly, when a communitymember is visible, the user alias associated with the community membercan be queried and sent to other community members.

Moreover, it is contemplated that the state of a community in a wirelessnode 101 can be used to filter incoming messages. For example, to blockall incoming or outgoing messages, a user can set the state of acommunity to inactive so that all messages from that particularcommunity are disregarded. It is contemplated that a user belonging tomultiple communities may independently set the visibility state for eachcommunity. By way of example, to block incoming advertisements, the usercan set the state to inactive for the community sending theadvertisements. It is also contemplated that the user can automaticallyset the visibility state based on criteria such as time (e.g., toautomatically set a visibility state at certain periods of the day),location (e.g., to automatically set a visibility state at certainlocations such as work or school), or any other context (e.g., while ina meeting or at dinner).

FIG. 5A is a ladder diagram that illustrates a sequence of messages andprocesses used in a querying node, according to an exemplary embodiment.A network process is represented by a thin vertical line. A step ormessage passed from one process to another is represented by horizontalarrows. A dashed horizontal arrow represents an optional step ormessage. The processes represented in FIG. 5A are the querying node 502,relaying node 506, and replying node 508. Within querying node 502, thefollowing additional processes are represented: application 201,cognition layer 203, community layer 205, network layer 207, and D2Dradio layer 209.

In step 501, the application 201 within querying node 502 generates arequest for searching community information (e.g., wireless nodes 101having active communities or communities with visible members) over thead-hoc mesh network 109 and sends the request to the community layer 205of the querying node 502. The community layer 205 generates a communityquery message, assigns a community query identification number (CQID) tothe query message and prepares the query message for transmission overthe ad-hoc mesh network 109 by marking the query with CIDs of thecommunities from which the user is seeking information. If the userseeks information on members of the communities and the communities areprivate, the community layer 205 encrypts the community-specific useridentity (e.g., alias) using the encryption keys associated with therespective CID and stored in the community directory 243 (FIG. 2C). Ifthe community directory 243 contains recent information about activecommunities in other nodes then the community layer 205 may return thecommunity information (step 503). The community layer 205 then sends theanonymized and partly encrypted message to the network layer 207 (step505).

The network layer 207 assigns a message sequence number (MID) to thequery message and adds fields to the network layer message header 281(FIG. 2F) to indicate that the querying node 502 is the source andtransmitter of the query message (e.g., using the NID). The networklayer 207 sends the query message to the D2D radio layer 209 of thequerying node 502 for broadcasting in the ad-hoc mesh network 109 (step507).

The query message is then broadcasted to one or more relaying nodes 506(step 509). All the nodes that are able to receive the broadcast messageare relaying nodes. After processing by the relaying node 506, the querymessage is rebroadcasted to another relaying node or to the replyingnode 508 (step 511). The processes of the replying node 508 aredescribed with respect to FIG. 5C. After processing of the query messageby the replying node 508, a reply message is generated and sent to therelaying node 506 (step 513) which routes the reply message either toanother relaying node or to the querying node 502 (step 515) based onthe route stored in the routing table 273.

At the querying node 502, the D2D radio layer 209 receives andacknowledges the reply message and forwards the reply message to thenetwork layer 207 (step 517). The network layer 207 determines that thequerying node 502 is the intended destination of the reply message bychecking the DST field 294 in the network layer message header 281 andsends the message to the community layer 205 for processing (step 519).In case of a private community, the community layer 205 decrypts thereply message using the appropriate encryption keys stored in thecommunity directory 243. Based on the information in the reply message,the community layer 205 updates information in the community directory243 (list of active communities and the lists of visible members in thecommunities) and finally sends a service response to the query to theapplication 201 (step 521).

FIG. 5B is a ladder diagram that illustrates a sequence of messages andprocesses used in a replying node, according to an exemplary embodiment.A network process is represented by a thin vertical line. A step ormessage passed from one process to another is represented by horizontalarrows. A dashed horizontal arrow represents an optional step ormessage. The processes represented in FIG. 5B are the replying node 508and the querying node 502. Within replying node 508, the followingadditional processes are represented: application 201, cognition layer203, community layer 205, network layer 207, and D2D radio layer 209.

In step 561, the D2D radio layer 209 of the replying node 508 receivesthe query message and forwards it to the network layer 207 of thereplying node 508. The network layer 207 may decide to rebroadcast thequery message (step 563). On receipt, the network layer 207 forwards thequery message to the community layer 205 (step 565).

If the community layer 205 determines that the query message containsone or more anonymized CIDs of the active communities associated withthe replying node 508 and the query message contains encrypted useraliases, the community layer 205 decrypts the message and updatesinformation in its community directory 243 (e.g., containing the list ofactive communities and the list of visible members of the communities).Next, the community layer 205 generates a reply message that containsthe same CQID as the incoming query and has the source NID of the querymessage set as the destination NID of the reply message. If the queryrequests visible user aliases and the user alias in the node 508 is setas visible then the community layer 205 encrypts the user alias with theencryption keys associated with the community. The community layer 205then retrieves a new anonymized CID from the community directory 243 andsends the reply message to the network layer 207 (step 567).

On receipt of the reply message, the network layer 207 assigns a newmessage sequence number (MSN) to the reply message, attaches the NID ofthe replying node 508 as the source and transmitter, finds the NID ofthe relaying node 506 for the next hop from the routing table 263, setsthe receive NID of the reply message as the next hop and sends the replymessage to the D2D radio layer 209 (step 569). The D2D radio layer 209sends the reply message as a unicast message addressed to a relayingnode 506 over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 (step 571).

FIGS. 6A-6B are diagrams of a user interface utilized in the process oflocating communities over an ad-hoc mesh network, according to variousexemplary embodiments. FIG. 6A depicts a user interface 600 listingcommunity related information and commands for managing and accessingawareness information. For example, section 601 lists community memberswho are nearby the wireless node 101. The members may be from one ormore different communities. Selecting a member enables a user to contactthe member, view the status of the member, or access other applicationsor functions related to the user. Section 603 may display, for instance,status commands or prompts such as an invitation to join a particularcommunity. User interface 600 also provides selectable menu options 605to initiate additional commands. For example, selecting the option“Around Me” prompts the display of a map 607 with the locations ofcommunity members.

FIG. 6B depicts a user interface 620 for managing communities. Forinstance, section 621 displays currently defined communities with anoption 623 to activate or deactivate each community individually. Usersmay also designate each community as either public or private using thecontrol 625. Members of each community are displayed in section 627,along with controls 629 for adding or removing members.

FIGS. 7A-7B are flowcharts of processes for discovering a location-basedservice using a flooding message, according to various exemplaryembodiments. As previously discussed, the system 100 provides anawareness information platform that application developers can use todevelop new and compelling applications. These applications, forinstance, can be used to provide a service or activity for a communitywithin the ad-hoc mesh network 109 and the communication network 103.For example, the service or activity may be location-based whereby thelocations of the participating nodes 101 affect the service or theinformation provided by the service. The process 700 of FIG. 7A and theprocess 720 of FIG. 7B can form the framework in which theseapplications operate.

In one embodiment, the awareness services module 111 performs theprocess 700 and the process 720, and is implemented in, for instance, achip set including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 14. In step701, the awareness services module 111 discovers a location-basedservice by sending an anonymous flooding message including a query overthe ad-hoc mesh network 109. In one embodiment, the flooding messagedirected to discover a location-based service provided by one or morecommunities that are active over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. Forexample, the awareness services module 111 can generate the floodingmessage to include anonymized community identifiers associated with orspecifying each of the active communities to be search (step 703). Asdiscussed previously, anonymizing the community identifier beforetransmitting the identifier of the ad-hoc mesh network 109 protects theprivacy of information shared among community members. As described withrespect to FIGS. 3A-3D, the awareness services module 111 maintains alist of active communities by either passively monitoring messagingtraffic or actively searching for active communities and/or visiblecommunity members over the local neighborhood of the ad-hoc mesh network109. In some cases, the communities may be either public (e.g., open andvisible to all wireless nodes 101 in the ad-hoc mesh network 109) orprivate (e.g., visible only to wireless nodes 101 possessing thecorresponding CID and authentication/encryption keys). In oneembodiment, the list of active communities and visible community membersare stored in the community directory 243 of the awareness servicesmodule 111 of each wireless node 101 in the ad-hoc mesh network 109. Byway of example, the local neighborhood of the ad-hoc mesh network 109includes one or more wireless devices (e.g., wireless nodes 101) withina predetermined range or geographical location. For example, thepredetermined range may be specified as a radius (e.g., a radius of 100yards extending from a wireless device), a geographic area (e.g., withina school campus, shopping mall, store, etc.), or any other suitabledesignation of a range.

The awareness services module 111 may then receive a reply to theflooding message from one or more neighboring wireless nodes 101 (step705). The reply, for instance, includes a pointer to the discoveredlocation-based service. By way of example, the pointer identifies one ormore services associated with the anonymized community identifiersincluded in the flooding message. In one embodiment, this identificationstep includes automatically discovering service- or activity-relatedinformation from one or more members of the selected community. Inexemplary embodiments, the information may include intimate information(e.g., the user's music preference, mood, etc.). In addition, theinformation or content is discovered anonymously (e.g., the identity oralias of the information owner is encrypted) unless specificallydirected otherwise by the information owner. In this way, theinformation is shared while protecting privacy or anonymity. Contentincludes any file or media of a wireless device. The process ofdiscovering the information or content is described with respect toFIGS. 5A and 5B via broadcast queries (e.g., flooding messages) andcorresponding replies (e.g., unicast replies).

Based on the discovered information or content, the awareness servicesmodule 111 selects the service or activity and initiates participationin the selected service or activity. In one embodiment, the discoveredinformation includes location indication data (e.g., navigationinformation). In this way, nodes 101 that have location sensors (e.g.,GPS receivers) can share the location information so that nodes 101without location sensor may nonetheless obtain the location indicationdata over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. The discovered location-basedservices may also include an indication of a local event (e.g., news ofa local sporting event or concert) or an indication of any other type oflocal information matching the query of the flooding of the message orthe discovery location-based service. In this context, local refers toinformation of content that is associated or related to the location ofthe either the querying or replying nodes. For example, a user issearching for a restaurant to dine in, but is unfamiliar with therestaurants in the area. An application may direct the awarenessservices module 111 to locate nearby members of a community with similarfood tastes to the user. The application may then present a list ofnearby restaurants with the number of community members in each who havesimilar food tastes. In this way, the user can learn which restaurant ismost popular according to the user's taste preferences. The user thenselects the activity (e.g., dining at a particular restaurant) based onthe information.

In certain embodiments, when participating in the service or activity,the awareness services module 111 may generate notifications to the userabout the service or activity. For example, these notifications can bereceived automatically (1) to provide information related to the serviceor activity, (2) to provide a status of the service or activity, (3)and/or to otherwise alert the user about the service or activity. Forexample, a community can be formed for sharing a hobby such asgardening. Within the community, an available application supports adiscussion forum service on gardening tips. The user may select thecommunity to access the discussion forum service. As new tips are postedto the discussion forum, the discussion forum service can direct theawareness services module 111 to notify the user.

While participating in the service or activity, the awareness servicesmodule 111 may also share information or content stored locally on theuser's wireless device. As described above, the information is sharedanonymously unless the user directs otherwise. Additionally, the usermay specify that the information or content is shared with all membersof a community, particular members of a community, all communities,particular communities, or any combination thereof. For example, asinger would like to share his latest song with his community of fansthat are within the local environment. To accomplish this, the singeruses, for instance, an application to locally publish a pointer (e.g., aURL) to the song over the ad-hoc mesh network 109.

FIG. 7B is flowchart of a process for replying to a flooding messagesent to discover a location-based service, according to an exemplaryembodiment. In step 721, a wireless node 101 receives a floodingmessaging for discovering a location-based service over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109. On receiving the flooding message, the awareness servicesmodule 111 of the receiving wireless node 101 filters the floodingmessage based on the anonymized community identifiers included in themessage. For example, to filter the flooding message, the awarenessservices module 111 of the receiving node 101 compares anonymizedcommunity identifiers in the flooding message against the anonymizedcommunity identifiers stored in the receiving wireless node 101 (e.g.,stored in the community directory 243 of the wireless node 101). In oneembodiment, the wireless node 101 stores anonymized communityidentifiers for each of the communities to which the wireless node 101belongs. If none of the anonymized community identifiers match, theawareness service module 111 disregards the flooding message and doesnot respond. If there is a match, the awareness services module 111 thendetermines whether it has the information or service to respond (step725). The information may include for example a pointer to alocation-based service or information related to the location-basedservice. If the wireless node 101 contains or has access to therequested service or information, the awareness services module 111initiates a reply to the flooding message. The reply, for instance,includes a pointer to the discovered location-based service. The module111 can also anonymize any personal information (e.g., musicalpreferences, food preferences, playlists, etc.) (step 727). In addition,any information that may identify the user of the responding node 101 isnot disclosed. After anonymizing personal information, the awarenessservices module 111 of the wireless node 101 initiates transmission, asin step 729, of the reply message over the ad-hoc mesh network 109 tothe querying node.

Examples of services using awareness information over the ad-hoc meshnetwork 109 are provided in FIGS. 8-11 below.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service forcollecting experiences, information, and content, according to anexemplary embodiment. In one embodiment, the awareness services module111 performs the process 800 and is implemented in, for instance, a chipset including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 14. In step 801,the awareness services module 111 collects information or content abouta user of one of the wireless devices within a selected community. Inexemplary embodiments, this information or content is automaticallycollected over the ad-hoc mesh network as the user comes within apredetermined range of the wireless device containing the collectingawareness services module 111. The information collection and exchangeoccurs automatically via, for instance, the query and reply processes ofFIGS. 5A and 5B.

After storing the information, an application may direct the awarenessservices module 111 to determine when the user from whom the informationor content has been collected comes back within the predetermined range(step 803). When the wireless devices associated with the user comesback within range, the awareness services module 111 correlates thepreviously collected information or content with the user and presentsthe collected information. For example, a person encounters a businessassociate on the street. The person's wireless device that is equippedwith the awareness services module 111 and an activity log applicationreports that the person last met the business associate at a companyretreat two months ago.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service for targetedadvertising, according to an exemplary embodiment. In one embodiment,the awareness services module 111 performs the process 900 and isimplemented in, for instance, a chip set including a processor and amemory as shown in FIG. 14. In step 901, the awareness services module111 determines context information corresponding to one or more of thewireless devices of a community. In this case, the users of the one ormore wireless devices are the target of the advertising application. Inexemplary embodiments, context information can be identified using aCID. For example, as a user watches an advertisement or accesses aproduct page on the user's wireless device, a CID corresponding to theadvertisement or product can be placed in the awareness services module111 of the user's wireless device. In other words, when the user watchesan advertisement, the user becomes part of the community of people whohave watched the advertisement, as identified by the CID.

When the user is near a store that sells the product in theadvertisement, the awareness services module 111, for example,automatically queries the store for information related to the productand receives in reply a targeted advertisement directed to the user(step 903). This process enables a retailer to send a targetedadvertisement to a user that is physically close to the store (e.g., asevidenced by connection over the short range ad-hoc mesh network 109)and is likely to be interested in the product because the user has, infact, watched the advertisement or searched for the product over theInternet.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service fordetermining location based on context information, according to anexemplary embodiment. In one embodiment, the awareness services module111 performs the process 1000 and is implemented in, for instance, achip set including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 14. In step1001, the awareness services platform determines context informationcorresponding to one or more wireless devices of a selected community.As described with respect to FIG. 9 above, the context information canbe identified using a CID. By way of example, a wireless device thatvisits a certain location may have a CID corresponding to the locationplaced in the awareness services module 111 of the device. For instance,a store may place the CID corresponding to the location of the store ina wireless device, as the device enters the store.

The awareness services module 111 of a wireless device seeking locationinformation determines the location information based on the contextinformation by, for instance, querying neighboring wireless devices todetermine whether the neighboring devices contain CIDs corresponding toa certain location (step 903). For example, a high density of devicescontaining a particular location CID is indicative of the correspondinglocation.

Alternatively or in addition, the awareness services module 111 mayquery neighboring devices that contain location sensors (e.g., globalpositioning satellite (GPS) receivers) for the location information. Inthis way, the wireless device querying the location may obtain accuratelocation information even when it is not using or is not configured withits own location sensors.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a process for providing a service fordetermining location based on sound, according to an exemplaryembodiment. In one embodiment, the awareness services module 111performs the process 1100 and is implemented in, for instance, a chipset including a processor and a memory as shown in FIG. 14. In step1101, to determine location, the awareness services module 111 initiatessampling of ambient sound by one or more of the wireless devices in aselected community. In exemplary embodiments, wireless devices that arewithin a single radio hop (e.g., determined by a flooding messagecarrying a message count limit of 1) take samples of the ambient soundfrom their microphones in a synchronized fashion. The samplingmeasurements are then disseminated over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. Theawareness services module 111 can then infer the locations of the one ormore wireless devices by, for instance, comparing the characteristics ofthe various sound samplings. Differences and similarities in the soundsamplings between to one or more wireless devices can indicate proximityof the one or more wireless devices.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a process for providing access for a serviceor activity, according to an exemplary embodiment. In step 701, thecommunication network 103 provides access and support for providing aservice or activity. As described previously, the service or activity isassociated with a community selected from a list of communities that areactive over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. By way of example, thecommunity comprises a plurality of wireless nodes 101 including a radiofor device-to-device communication over the ad-hoc mesh network 109. Inexemplary embodiments, the ad-hoc mesh network 109 supports only shortmessages and pointers (e.g., IP address or URL) to content to minimizedata traffic. In other words, the transfer of larger files or contenttakes place over a communication network (e.g., communication network103) based on the pointer. For example, when a service or activityincludes transfer of content or information that cannot be included inthe short messages of the ad-hoc mesh network 109, the service oractivity uses, for instance, the communication network 103. Therefore,it is contemplated that the communication network 103 works inconjunction with the ad-hoc mesh network 109 to provide sufficientnetwork resources (e.g., bandwidth, etc.) to facilitate the transport ofthe content and information to support the service or activity betweenmembers of communities within the ad-hoc mesh network 109.

The processes described herein for providing a service or activity in anad-hoc mesh network 109 may be implemented via software, hardware (e.g.,general processor, Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip, an ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGAs), etc.), firmware or a combination thereof. Such exemplaryhardware for performing the described functions is detailed below.

FIG. 13 illustrates a computer system 1300 upon which an embodiment ofthe invention may be implemented. Computer system 1300 is programmed toprovide a user interface as described herein and includes acommunication mechanism such as a bus 1310 for passing informationbetween other internal and external components of the computer system1300. Information (also called data) is represented as a physicalexpression of a measurable phenomenon, typically electric voltages, butincluding, in other embodiments, such phenomena as magnetic,electromagnetic, pressure, chemical, biological, molecular, atomic,sub-atomic and quantum interactions. For example, north and southmagnetic fields, or a zero and non-zero electric voltage, represent twostates (0, 1) of a binary digit (bit). Other phenomena can representdigits of a higher base. A superposition of multiple simultaneousquantum states before measurement represents a quantum bit (qubit). Asequence of one or more digits constitutes digital data that is used torepresent a number or code for a character. In some embodiments,information called analog data is represented by a near continuum ofmeasurable values within a particular range.

A bus 1310 includes one or more parallel conductors of information sothat information is transferred quickly among devices coupled to the bus1310. One or more processors 1302 for processing information are coupledwith the bus 1310.

A processor 1302 performs a set of operations on information related toproviding a service or activity in an ad-hoc mesh network 109. The setof operations include bringing information in from the bus 1310 andplacing information on the bus 1310. The set of operations alsotypically include comparing two or more units of information, shiftingpositions of units of information, and combining two or more units ofinformation, such as by addition or multiplication or logical operationslike OR, exclusive OR (XOR), and AND. Each operation of the set ofoperations that can be performed by the processor is represented to theprocessor by information called instructions, such as an operation codeof one or more digits. A sequence of operations to be executed by theprocessor 1302, such as a sequence of operation codes, constituteprocessor instructions, also called computer system instructions or,simply, computer instructions. Processors may be implemented asmechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical, chemical or quantumcomponents, among others, alone or in combination.

Computer system 1300 also includes a memory 1304 coupled to bus 1310.The memory 1304, such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamicstorage device, stores information including processor instructions forproviding a service or activity in an ad-hoc mesh network 109. Dynamicmemory allows information stored therein to be changed by the computersystem 1300. RAM allows a unit of information stored at a locationcalled a memory address to be stored and retrieved independently ofinformation at neighboring addresses. The memory 1304 is also used bythe processor 1302 to store temporary values during execution ofprocessor instructions. The computer system 1300 also includes a readonly memory (ROM) 1306 or other static storage device coupled to the bus1310 for storing static information, including instructions, that is notchanged by the computer system 1300. Some memory is composed of volatilestorage that loses the information stored thereon when power is lost.Also coupled to bus 1310 is a non-volatile (persistent) storage device1308, such as a magnetic disk, optical disk or flash card, for storinginformation, including instructions, that persists even when thecomputer system 1300 is turned off or otherwise loses power.

Information, including instructions for providing a service or activityin an ad-hoc mesh network 109, is provided to the bus 1310 for use bythe processor from an external input device 1312, such as a keyboardcontaining alphanumeric keys operated by a human user, or a sensor. Asensor detects conditions in its vicinity and transforms thosedetections into physical expression compatible with the measurablephenomenon used to represent information in computer system 1300. Otherexternal devices coupled to bus 1310, used primarily for interactingwith humans, include a display device 1314, such as a cathode ray tube(CRT) or a liquid crystal display (LCD), or plasma screen or printer forpresenting text or images, and a pointing device 1316, such as a mouseor a trackball or cursor direction keys, or motion sensor, forcontrolling a position of a small cursor image presented on the display1314 and issuing commands associated with graphical elements presentedon the display 1314. In some embodiments, for example, in embodiments inwhich the computer system 1300 performs all functions automaticallywithout human input, one or more of external input device 1312, displaydevice 1314 and pointing device 1316 is omitted.

In the illustrated embodiment, special purpose hardware, such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 1320, is coupled to bus1310. The special purpose hardware is configured to perform operationsnot performed by processor 1302 quickly enough for special purposes.Examples of application specific ICs include graphics accelerator cardsfor generating images for display 1314, cryptographic boards forencrypting and decrypting messages sent over a network, speechrecognition, and interfaces to special external devices, such as roboticarms and medical scanning equipment that repeatedly perform some complexsequence of operations that are more efficiently implemented inhardware.

Computer system 1300 also includes one or more instances of acommunications interface 1370 coupled to bus 1310. Communicationinterface 1370 provides a one-way or two-way communication coupling to avariety of external devices that operate with their own processors, suchas printers, scanners and external disks. In general the coupling iswith a network link 1378 that is connected to a local network 1380 towhich a variety of external devices with their own processors areconnected. For example, communication interface 1370 may be a parallelport or a serial port or a universal serial bus (USB) port on a personalcomputer. In some embodiments, communications interface 1370 is anintegrated services digital network (ISDN) card or a digital subscriberline (DSL) card or a telephone modem that provides an informationcommunication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line. Insome embodiments, a communication interface 1370 is a cable modem thatconverts signals on bus 1310 into signals for a communication connectionover a coaxial cable or into optical signals for a communicationconnection over a fiber optic cable. As another example, communicationsinterface 1370 may be a local area network (LAN) card to provide a datacommunication connection to a compatible LAN, such as Ethernet. Wirelesslinks may also be implemented. For wireless links, the communicationsinterface 1370 sends or receives or both sends and receives electrical,acoustic or electromagnetic signals, including infrared and opticalsignals, that carry information streams, such as digital data. Forexample, in wireless handheld devices, such as mobile telephones likecell phones, the communications interface 1370 includes a radio bandelectromagnetic transmitter and receiver called a radio transceiver. Inexemplary embodiments, the communications interface 1370 enablesconnection to the communication network 103 for providing a service oractivity in an ad-hoc mesh network 109.

The term computer-readable medium is used herein to refer to any mediumthat participates in providing information to processor 1302, includinginstructions for execution. Such a medium may take many forms,including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media andtransmission media. Non-volatile media include, for example, optical ormagnetic disks, such as storage device 1308. Volatile media include, forexample, dynamic memory 1304. Transmission media include, for example,coaxial cables, copper wire, fiber optic cables, and carrier waves thattravel through space without wires or cables, such as acoustic waves andelectromagnetic waves, including radio, optical and infrared waves.Signals include man-made transient variations in amplitude, frequency,phase, polarization or other physical properties transmitted through thetransmission media. Common forms of computer-readable media include, forexample, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, anyother magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, CDRW, DVD, any other optical medium,punch cards, paper tape, optical mark sheets, any other physical mediumwith patterns of holes or other optically recognizable indicia, a RAM, aPROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, acarrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer can read.

FIG. 14 illustrates a chip set 1400 upon which an embodiment of theinvention may be implemented. Chip set 1400 is programmed to provideawareness information over an ad-hoc mesh network 109 as describedherein and includes, for instance, the processor and memory componentsdescribed with respect to FIG. 14 incorporated in one or more physicalpackages. By way of example, a physical package includes an arrangementof one or more materials, components, and/or wires on a structuralassembly (e.g., a baseboard) to provide one or more characteristics suchas physical strength, conservation of size, and/or limitation ofelectrical interaction.

In one embodiment, the chip set 1400 includes a communication mechanismsuch as a bus 1401 for passing information among the components of thechip set 1400. A processor 1403 has connectivity to the bus 1401 toexecute instructions and process information stored in, for example, amemory 1405. The processor 1403 may include one or more processing coreswith each core configured to perform independently. A multi-coreprocessor enables multiprocessing within a single physical package.Examples of a multi-core processor include two, four, eight, or greaternumbers of processing cores. Alternatively or in addition, the processor1403 may include one or more microprocessors configured in tandem viathe bus 1401 to enable independent execution of instructions,pipelining, and multithreading. The processor 1403 may also beaccompanied with one or more specialized components to perform certainprocessing functions and tasks such as one or more digital signalprocessors (DSP) 1407, or one or more application-specific integratedcircuits (ASIC) 1409. A DSP 1407 typically is configured to processreal-world signals (e.g., sound) in real time independently of theprocessor 1403. Similarly, an ASIC 1409 can be configured to performedspecialized functions not easily performed by a general purposedprocessor. Other specialized components to aid in performing theinventive functions described herein include one or more fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGA) (not shown), one or more controllers(not shown), or one or more other special-purpose computer chips.

The processor 1403 and accompanying components have connectivity to thememory 1405 via the bus 1401. The memory 1405 includes both dynamicmemory (e.g., RAM, magnetic disk, writable optical disk, etc.) andstatic memory (e.g., ROM, CD-ROM, etc.) for storing executableinstructions that when executed perform the inventive steps describedherein to provide awareness information over an ad-hoc mesh network 109.The memory 1405 also stores the data associated with or generated by theexecution of the inventive steps.

FIG. 15 is a diagram of exemplary components of a mobile station (e.g.,handset) capable of operating in the system of FIG. 1, according to anexemplary embodiment. Generally, a radio receiver is often defined interms of front-end and back-end characteristics. The front-end of thereceiver encompasses all of the Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry whereasthe back-end encompasses all of the base-band processing circuitry.Pertinent internal components of the telephone include a Main ControlUnit (MCU) 1503, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) 1505, and areceiver/transmitter unit including a microphone gain control unit and aspeaker gain control unit. A main display unit 1507 provides a displayto the user in support of various applications and mobile stationfunctions such as the awareness services module 111. An audio functioncircuitry 1509 includes a microphone 1511 and microphone amplifier thatamplifies the speech signal output from the microphone 1511. Theamplified speech signal output from the microphone 1511 is fed to acoder/decoder (CODEC) 1513.

A radio section 1515 amplifies power and converts frequency in order tocommunicate with a base station, which is included in a mobilecommunication system, via antenna 1517. The power amplifier (PA) 1519and the transmitter/modulation circuitry are operationally responsive tothe MCU 1503, with an output from the PA 1519 coupled to the duplexer1521 or circulator or antenna switch, as known in the art. The PA 1519also couples to a battery interface and power control unit 1520.

In use, a user of mobile station 1501 speaks into the microphone 1511and his or her voice along with any detected background noise isconverted into an analog voltage. The analog voltage is then convertedinto a digital signal through the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)1523. The control unit 1503 routes the digital signal into the DSP 1505for processing therein, such as speech encoding, channel encoding,encrypting, and interleaving. In the exemplary embodiment, the processedvoice signals are encoded, by units not separately shown, using acellular transmission protocol such as global evolution (EDGE), generalpacket radio service (GPRS), global system for mobile communications(GSM), Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS), universal mobiletelecommunications system (UMTS), etc., as well as any other suitablewireless medium, e.g., microwave access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution(LTE) networks, code division multiple access (CDMA), wireless fidelity(WiFi), satellite, and the like.

The encoded signals are then routed to an equalizer 1525 forcompensation of any frequency-dependent impairments that occur duringtransmission though the air such as phase and amplitude distortion.After equalizing the bit stream, the modulator 1527 combines the signalwith a RF signal generated in the RF interface 1529. The modulator 1527generates a sine wave by way of frequency or phase modulation. In orderto prepare the signal for transmission, an up-converter 1531 combinesthe sine wave output from the modulator 1527 with another sine wavegenerated by a synthesizer 1533 to achieve the desired frequency oftransmission. The signal is then sent through a PA 1519 to increase thesignal to an appropriate power level. In practical systems, the PA 1519acts as a variable gain amplifier whose gain is controlled by the DSP1505 from information received from a network base station. The signalis then filtered within the duplexer 1521 and optionally sent to anantenna coupler 1535 to match impedances to provide maximum powertransfer. Finally, the signal is transmitted via antenna 1517 to a localbase station. An automatic gain control (AGC) can be supplied to controlthe gain of the final stages of the receiver. The signals may beforwarded from there to a remote telephone which may be another cellulartelephone, other mobile phone or a land-line connected to a PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN), or other telephony networks.

Voice signals transmitted to the mobile station 1501 are received viaantenna 1517 and immediately amplified by a low noise amplifier (LNA)1537. A down-converter 1539 lowers the carrier frequency while thedemodulator 1541 strips away the RF leaving only a digital bit stream.The signal then goes through the equalizer 1525 and is processed by theDSP 1505. A Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) 1543 converts the signaland the resulting output is transmitted to the user through the speaker1545, all under control of a Main Control Unit (MCU) 1503-which can beimplemented as a Central Processing Unit (CPU) (not shown).

The MCU 1503 receives various signals including input signals from thekeyboard 1547. The keyboard 1547 and/or the MCU 1503 in combination withother user input components (e.g., the microphone 1511) comprise a userinterface circuitry for managing user input. The MCU 1503 runs a userinterface software to facilitate user control of at least some functionsof the mobile station 1501. The MCU 1503 also delivers a display commandand a switch command to the display 1507 and to the speech outputswitching controller, respectively. Further, the MCU 1503 exchangesinformation with the DSP 1505 and can access an optionally incorporatedSIM card 1549 and a memory 1551. In addition, the MCU 1503 executesvarious control functions required of the station. The DSP 1505 may,depending upon the implementation, perform any of a variety ofconventional digital processing functions on the voice signals.Additionally, DSP 1505 determines the background noise level of thelocal environment from the signals detected by microphone 1511 and setsthe gain of microphone 1511 to a level selected to compensate for thenatural tendency of the user of the mobile station 1501.

The CODEC 1513 includes the ADC 1523 and DAC 1543. The memory 1551stores various data including call incoming tone data and is capable ofstoring other data including music data received via, e.g., the globalInternet. The software module could reside in RAM memory, flash memory,registers, or any other form of writable storage medium known in theart. The memory device 1551 may be, but not limited to, a single memory,CD, DVD, ROM, RAM, EEPROM, optical storage, or any other non-volatilestorage medium capable of storing digital data.

An optionally incorporated SIM card 1549 carries, for instance,important information, such as the cellular phone number, the carriersupplying service, subscription details, and security information. TheSIM card 1549 serves primarily to identify the mobile station 1501 on aradio network. The card 1549 also contains a memory for storing apersonal telephone number registry, text messages, and user specificmobile station settings.

While the invention has been described in connection with a number ofembodiments and implementations, the invention is not so limited butcovers various obvious modifications and equivalent arrangements, whichfall within the purview of the appended claims. Although features of theinvention are expressed in certain combinations among the claims, it iscontemplated that these features can be arranged in any combination andorder.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: discovering localinformation by broadcasting an anonymous propagating multi-hop floodingmessage including a query over a wireless ad-hoc mesh network withoutthe use of internet protocols; and receiving a reply to the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message from a wireless node, whichreceives the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message, over thead-hoc mesh network without the use of internet protocols, wherein thewireless node receiving the anonymous propagating multi-hop floodingmessage includes a message table containing flooding messages thewireless node has scheduled to be transmitted, the message table isupdated to include the received anonymous propagating multi-hop floodingmessage that the wireless node has scheduled to be transmitted, eachentry in the message table contains the anonymous propagating multi-hopflooding message, the time when the anonymous propagating multi-hopflooding message is scheduled to be sent, and a number of receptions ofa same anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message by the wirelessnode, the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is removedfrom the message table at a time a maximum number of receptions of thesame anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is reached, thereply includes a pointer or small-volume data related to the discoveredlocal information, the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding messageis transmitted to the neighboring nodes in connectionless manner withoutthe need to send any prior control signals or messages to theneighboring nodes before the transmission or without knowledge of theaddresses of the neighboring nodes, and the neighboring nodes to whichthe anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is transmittedinclude one or more nodes that are different from node from which theanonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is received.
 2. Amethod of claim 1, wherein the a network layer identification associatedwith the wireless node is periodically changed.
 3. A method of claim 1,wherein each beaconing period of a device-to-device radio layer of thewireless node is on an order of hundreds of milliseconds and each awakeperiod of the device-to-device radio layer of the wireless node is onlya few milliseconds.
 4. A method of claim 1, wherein the reply to theanonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message from the wireless nodeis used by the wireless node to identify active communities within aneighborhood and to update a list of visible community members in theneighborhood.
 5. A method of claim 1, further comprising: generating theanonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message to include one or moreanonymized community identifiers, wherein the one or more anonymizedcommunity identifiers specify the respective communities to which theanonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is directed.
 6. Amethod comprising: receiving at a wireless node, without the use ofinternet protocols, an anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding messageincluding a query for discovering local information over an ad-hoc meshnetwork; and initiating transmission of a reply to the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message without the use of internetprotocols, wherein the wireless node receiving the anonymous propagatingmulti-hop flooding message includes a message table containing floodingmessages the wireless node has scheduled to be transmitted, the messagetable is updated to include the received anonymous propagating multi-hopflooding message that the wireless node has scheduled to be transmitted,each entry in the message table contains the anonymous propagatingmulti-hop flooding message, the time when the anonymous propagatingmulti-hop flooding message is scheduled to be sent, and a number ofreceptions of a same anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message bythe wireless node, the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding messageis removed from the message table at a time a maximum number ofreceptions of the same anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding messageis reached, the reply includes a pointer or small-volume data related tothe discovered local information, the anonymous propagating multi-hopflooding message is transmitted to neighboring nodes in connectionlessmanner without the need to send any prior control signals or messages tothe neighboring nodes before the transmission or without knowledge ofthe addresses of the neighboring nodes, and the neighboring nodes towhich the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message istransmitted include one or more nodes that are different from node fromwhich the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is received.7. A method of claim 6, further comprising: filtering the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message by comparing a set of anonymizedcommunity identifiers stored in a replying wireless node against one ormore anonymized community identifiers included in the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message, wherein a replying wireless nodein the ad-hoc network contains a set of anonymized community identifierscorresponding respectively to each community to which the wireless nodebelongs.
 8. A method of claim 6, further comprising: determining whethera wireless node contains or has access to the queried local information;and initiating transmission of the reply based on the determination,wherein personal information in the reply is anonymized.
 9. A method ofclaim 6, wherein the local information is location indication data, anindication of a location event, an indication of location-based servicematching the query, or a combination thereof.
 10. A wireless nodecomprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory includingcomputer program code, the at least one memory and the computer programcode configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the wirelessnode to perform at least the following, receive at the wireless node,without the use of internet protocols, an anonymous propagatingmulti-hop flooding message including a query for discovering localinformation over an ad-hoc mesh network, and initiate transmission of areply to the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message withoutthe use of internet protocols, wherein the wireless node that receivesthe anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message includes a messagetable containing flooding messages the wireless node has scheduled to betransmitted, the message table is updated to include the receivedanonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message that the wireless nodehas scheduled to be transmitted, each entry in the message tablecontains the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message, the timewhen the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is scheduledto be sent, and a number of receptions of a same anonymous propagatingmulti-hop flooding message by the wireless node, the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message is removed from the message tableat a time a maximum number of receptions of the same anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message is reached, the reply includes apointer or small-volume data related to the discovered localinformation, the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message istransmitted to the neighboring nodes in connectionless manner withoutthe need to send any prior control signals or messages to theneighboring nodes before the transmission or without knowledge of theaddresses of the neighboring nodes, and the neighboring nodes to whichthe anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is transmittedinclude one or more nodes that are different from node from which theanonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message is received.
 11. Awireless node of claim 10, wherein a network layer identificationassociated with the wireless node is periodically changed.
 12. Awireless node of claim 10, wherein each beaconing period of adevice-to-device radio layer of the wireless node is on an order ofhundreds of milliseconds and each awake period of the device-to-deviceradio layer of the wireless node is only a few milliseconds.
 13. Awireless node of claim 10, wherein the reply to the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message from the wireless node is used bythe wireless node to identify active communities within a neighborhoodand to update a list of visible community members in the neighborhood.14. A wireless node of claim 10, wherein the wireless node is furthercaused to: generate the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding messageto include one or more anonymized community identifiers, wherein the oneor more anonymized community identifier specify the respectivecommunities to which the anonymous propagating multi-hop floodingmessage is directed.
 15. A wireless node of claim 10, wherein the thewireless node is a mobile phone further comprising: user interfacecircuitry and user interface software configured to facilitate usercontrol of at least some functions of the mobile phone through use of adisplay and configured to respond to user input; and a display anddisplay circuitry configured to display at least a portion of a userinterface of the mobile phone, the display and display circuitryconfigured to facilitate user control of at least some functions of themobile phone.
 16. A wireless node of claim 15, wherein the mobile phoneincludes a radio for device-to-device communication over the ad-hoc meshnetwork.
 17. A wireless node of claim 10, wherein the wireless node isfurther caused to: filter the anonymous propagating multi-hop floodingmessage by comparing a set of anonymized community identifiers stored ina replying wireless node against one or more anonymized communityidentifiers included in the anonymous propagating multi-hop floodingmessage, wherein a replying wireless node in the ad-hoc network containsa set of anonymized community identifiers corresponding respectively toeach community to which the wireless node belongs.
 18. A wireless nodeof claim 10, wherein the wireless node is further caused to: determinewhether the wireless node contains or has access to information relevantto the queried local information; and initiate transmission of the replybased on the determination.
 19. A wireless node of claim 10, wherein thelocal information is location indication data, an indication of alocation event, an indication of location-based service matching thequery, or a combination thereof.
 20. A wireless node of claim 10,wherein the wireless node includes a community layer, a cognition layer,and a network layer connected between an application and a device todevice radio layer, and wherein the community layer is connected betweenthe cognition layer, which is a higher layer than the community layer,and the network layer, which is a lower layer than the community layer.21. A wireless node of claim 20, wherein the cognition layer includes acontrol logic and a storage, and the reply is automatically stored inthe storage.
 22. A wireless node of claim 10, wherein the anonymouspropagating multi-hop flooding message does not include a true identifyof a sender of the anonymous propagating multi-hop flooding message.